Setting Up Unix Computing Environment on Windows 10 with WSL

WSL, or Windows Subsystem for Linux, is a subsystem that allows users to run a Unix computing environment within Windows 10. This is the recommended method for having a local Unix computing environment for your Windows 10 machine.

There are two versions, WSL 1 and, a newer, WSL 2.

For the Unix@Home workshop, it suffices for attendees to install WSL 1.

Requirements

Before you proceed with the instructions below, you need to make sure that:

• You have 64-bit versions of Windows 10, version 1607 or higher (Here is how you check);

• You have administrator access to your Windows 10; And

• You have an SoC Unix account. You can create an SoC Unix account here. For SoC students, this username is something that sticks with you for the rest of your SoC life -- so choose wisely.

Installing WSL 1

Step 1: Enabling WSL on Windows 10 through PowerShell

Before you install WSL 1, you need to first enable the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" feature by running the following command in PowerShell.

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

You can achieve this step by:

• Hit Win to open the Start menu, type PowerShell, then right-click on Windows PowerShell, and click "Run as administrator"
• Copy the command above by selecting it and then hitting Ctrl+C
• Go to your PowerShell window and paste the command above by hitting Ctrl+V. Press enter if needed to run the command.

Step 2: Restart your computer

Step 3: Install Ubuntu

After restarting your computer, go to the Microsoft Store and get Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.¹

Follow the on-screen instructions to install.

When you are asked to create a user account and password, we suggest that you choose a Unix username that is that same as your SoC Unix username.

Launching WSL

To launch WSL, you can hit Win+R and type in Ubuntu followed by Enter. This should bring up the Unix command-line interface for you to interact with the Unix computing environment.

Getting ready to install tools

Ubuntu comes with apt as the package manager, which is a convenient way to list, search, install, update, and uninstall software and libraries in WSL.

After you have set up WSL, run the following:

sudo apt update

What it does:

• apt is a command to install, upgrade, search, and uninstall software and other packages in Ubuntu.
• apt update asks apt to obtain the latest list of available packages from the Internet.
• sudo performs apt update with a super-user's level permission. This command may ask you to enter your password. (Note: super-user means administrator in Unix).

Windows Terminal

For windows, a great extension that all programmers should have is the Windows Terminal.

Windows Terminal is a modern terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and the ability to create your own themes and customize text, colors, backgrounds, and shortcuts.

To download and get started with windows terminal, click and follow the instructions on the following link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/get-started